My wife & I are just getting started with Breath of the Wild, and liking it a lot so far. My question: any reason to purchase the DLC before our first playthrough of the storyline is complete? Any advice is appreciated.

This is a REALLY tough call. If you want to expand the gameplay and story before facing off with Ganon, then yes by all means get it before finishing the story. But some features (Korok Mask, the instant warp marker thing, Hero’s Path, etc) will make your journey easier before the final fight. Then again, if you want to give yourself something to focus on AFTER saving the land from evil, then getting the DLC afterward is fine too.

FWIW I voted for After, but I’m not committed to that vote. It’s whatever you want to do

Before…IF you, like me were feeling that the reduced challenge over time was impacting your sense of adventure.

I abandoned my 100 hour plus playthrough (~100 shrines, 3/4 Divine beasts) when the first DLC came out and restarted in Master Mode. My second playthrough also had some rules: no shrine locator and only enough hearts to do the master sword trials. I really am enjoying slowly working through it all again with the added difficulty. I honestly wish that the game did more to keep you on your toes.

I’m not some masochistic, “true gamer” type, it’s more that I tend to not go out of my way to create my own challenges or play around with physics for their own sake (Minecraft holds no appeal for me). I need the game to give me some constraints to force me to interact with all of it’s systems. The guys at Cool Ghosts had a nice discussion about this when they were talking about Horizon Zero Dawn and how one of them only really began to enjoy it on Hard because it made him really think out each encounter and to use more improvisation.

On a similar note, is it worth the frustration to go through the Trials of the Swords challenges? Because I think they’re cool conceptually but absolute bullshit in practice. It’s the frustrating contradiction of “Don’t rush. Take your time, play conservatively, and avoid taking unnecessary damage early on” and “lol not that it matters anyway because shit in later rounds can knock out 17 hearts in a single hit, fuck you”

Sorry, I just had a really good run ended by one barrel explosion that killed me from full health.

I feel you on the Trials. They definitely feel very luck of the physics engine in later levels and you pretty much have to start the whole thing over if you die. I said fuck that after a while and am happy with my level 1 sword upgrade.